






This work was included in the exhibition Dreaming their Way organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. It was the first major exhibition of Indigenous Australian women artists to be shown in the USA.
This work depicts the narrative of Kutungu—also known as Walinngi—an ancestral woman who began her travels from tjungutjarrpanguru (where the sun goes down), moving eastward and creating a range of hills south of the Kiwirrkurra road. She hunted, as is common among desert women, with a wana (digging stick) and a piti (coolamon).
Her activities left their record on the land at places such as Papunnga, Ngartannga, Yarrannga, Wanatjalnga and, eventually, at Muruntji. At Papunnga, Kutungu saw a group of people playing on a sandhill and trapped them in a hole. Fanning a fire (papuntjuninpa means “to fan”), she smoked the hole, putting the people to death. Later, she dug up their bodies and cooked and ate them. Near Muruntji, Kutungu fell asleep and was found by a group of boys, one of whom raped her while she slept. She set out for the boys, tracked them, killed them with her digging stick and cooked and ate them. The distinctive rock formations at Muruntji record this event. As she crawled off, toward Kantawanya, she vomited, leaving a mark in the landscape, and turned into a water snake.
Kutungu had sharp teeth. She was killing all the women and kids and they turned into round, flat puli (stones).
Language Group: Pintupi
Dates: 1922–1999
Inyuwa Nampitjinpa was born at Punkilpirri, a major rockhole site south of the Tjukurla community and north-west of Docker River. She is the mother of Walangkura Napanangka and Pirrmangka Napanangka, who both painted for Papunya Tula Artists. Inyuwa started painting in 1996 and took off in 1997 after the removal of her cataracts. Although she passed away only two years later, she produced a steady stream of innovative works between 1997 and 1999. In June 1999, shortly before her death, she became one of the first women from Papunya Tula to be given a solo exhibition of her works, held at the prestigious Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in Melbourne. She is represented in the National Gallery of Victoria, which holds eleven of her works.

INYUWA NAMPITJINPA, Travels of Kutungu from Papunnga to Muruntji, 1999
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 60 × 48 in. (152.5 × 122.0 cm). Collection of Richard Klingler and Jane Slatter.
© estate of the artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd for Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd.

Inyuwa Nampitjinpa.
Courtesy of Papunya Tula Artists.
Photo by Paul Sweeney.

Muruntji, 1975.
Photo by Fred Myers.